Huang Yen-p'ei (6 September 1878-21 December 1965), known as an early advocate of vocational education in China, founded the China Vocational Education Society and such industrial schools as the China Vocational Institute. In the 1940's he became active in anti-Kuomintang groups which advocated constitutional government in China. He helped found (1945) and served as chairman of the China Democratic National Construction Association. After 1949, he held office in the Central People's Government, serving as minister of light industries until 1954.

Born at Ch'uansha, a district near Shanghai, Huang Yen-p'ei was orphaned at an early age and was brought up by relatives. He received a traditional education, and by 1902 he had obtained the prestigious chü-jen degree. He then entered Nanyang College in Shanghai and supported himself by teaching at the P'utung Middle School, where one of his students was Fan Wen-lan (q.v.), who later became a leading Communist historian.

In 1903 Huang returned to Ch'uansha, where he founded a primary school and helped form a study club to arouse interest in mass education. The activities of the group soon involved Huang in a crisis of the first magnitude. On the denunciation of a relative, he was arrested by the Manchu authorities for violating ordinances prohibiting the spread of revolutionary ideas. Huang was sentenced to death. He avoided that penalty only through the intervention of a missionary, William Burke. After being released, Huang immediately set out for Japan, then the refuge of many Chinese who had come into conflict with the Manchu government. In Japan, Huang concentrated on the study of education and developed an interest in the field of vocational education. He took part in many of the political activities which enlivened Chinese student life in Japan at that time and became an advocate of constitutional government. After returning to China, he served as a district school inspector in Kiangsu and then as a member of the staff of the Kiangsu provincial assembly. He also became director of the Kiangsu branch of the Hsien-yu-hui [friends of the constitution party]. This party, which was tolerated by the Manchu government, advocated a mild program of reform through constitutional monarchy which was far removed from the revolutionary doctrines of the proscribed T'ung-meng-hui. After the Wuchang revolt of October 1911, Kiangsu declared its independence of Manchu rule. Soon afterward, Huang was appointed commissioner of education for Kiangsu, a post which he held for three years. Huang effected the complete reorganization of the Kiangsu school system along modern lines. He personally supervised the preparation of new school laws and regulations as well as of new curricula for all levels. His report on educational administration in the province from October 1911 through July 1913 summarized his reforms and probably constituted the first post-Manchu report on education in China. It was published in 1914.

In 1914 Huang left his Kiangsu post to become a correspondent for the Shanghai Shunpao with the special assignment of reporting on the state of education in China. His articles, published serially as Huang Yen-p'ei k'ao-ch'a chiao-yü jih-chi [diary of a tour of education inspection], appeared in 1914-15 and recorded his impressions of school administration in six provinces—Kiangsu, Anhwei, Kiangsi, Chekiang, Shantung, and Chihli I'Hopei). The reports played an important part in the formulation of national education policy and enhanced Huang's reputation as an expert in education. As a result, he was appointed secretary of a Chinese industrial mission to the United States, in which capacity he visited Japan and the United States in 1915. Following the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai in 1916, Huang won new attention by writing an article which castigated Yuan as a traitor. Also in 1916 he became a member of the Kiangsu provincial assembly and vice chairman of the Kiangsu provincial education association. By 1917, however, his interest in provincial politics had waned. He resigned from his posts and departed for Japan to make a thorough study of vocational education, which he had come to believe was the primary educational need of China. In Tokyo, Huang conferred with Tejima Seüchi, then president of the Tokyo Higher Technological School and a leader in Japanese vocational education. After several months of study and inspection of facilities in Japan, Huang returned to China. In 1917 he also completed a critical survey of China's foreign trade situation, with special reference to the status and administration of its customs service, which was published as Chung-kuo shang-yeh shih-pai shih [a history of the ruin of Chinese commerce]. In 1918 Huang founded the China Vocational Education Society, with himself as chairman, and established the China Vocational Institute.

Because Huang wished to devote himself to furthering vocational education, he refused appointment as commissioner of education for Kiangsu province and also declined to serve as educational adviser to the governor, Li Shun. In 1921 and again in 1922 Huang succeeded in having his appointment rescinded as minister of education in the cabinets of Liang Shih-i and VV. W. Yen. In 1923 he received an honorary doctorate from St. John's University in Shanghai and consented to become a member of the Educational Sinking Fund Commission. He also took charge of the planning section of the Shun-pao and served as co-editor of its fiftiethanniversary supplement, Tsui-chin chih üu-shihnien [the past 50 years]. Such eminent men as Shih Liang-ts'ai, Sun Yat-sen, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei, Hu Shih, and Huang contributed reminiscences to the supplement. During the late 1920's and the early 1930's Huang continued to develop the China Vocational Education Society and the China Vocational Institute. In 1930 he published the Chung-kuo chiao-yü shih-yao [brief history of Chinese education]. Soon afterwards, he was drawn into political activity again. Tsou T'ao-fen (q.v.), the editor of the China Vocational Education Society's monthly journal and later of the magazine Sheng-huo chou-k'an [life weekly], reportedly influenced Huang's views, and Huang became prominent in anti-Kuomintang front organizations in educational circles. In the early 1930's Huang was active in the Society for the Improvement of Chinese Education, of which T'ao Hsing-chih (q.v.) was executive secretary. Both T'ao and Tsou were active in the so-called people's front, and Huang, by association as well as interest, was drawn into this group.

In 1937 Huang consented to become a member of the Defense Advisory Council. In July 1938, after the first year of the Sino-Japanese war, Huang became a member of the standing committee of the People's Political Council. In February 1939 he was appointed commissioner in charge of unifying guerrilla activities in the Hunan-Hupeh area. He also was made a member of the Supreme National Defense Council.

In 1940 Huang was dispatched to Manila to supervise the sale of Chinese war bonds there. After returning to Chungking in 1941, he participated in the formation of the League of Chinese Democratic Political Groups. The Vocational Education Society was accepted as a member group, and Huang became a vice chairman of the federation. In 1943 he was made chairman of the national sales committee for Chinese war bonds. During these years at Chungking, Huang continued to take an active interest in the practical details of vocational education, and he established schools in Chungking, Kunming, and Kweilin, including the China Industrial and Commercial Technological School. In 1944 the League of Chinese Democratic Political Groups was reorganized as the China Democratic League, and it began to accept individual citizens as rriembers. As a result of the reorganization, Huang became chairman of its committee for industrial and commercial movements. This appointment marked the first time that Huang had assumed leadership of important industrial and commercial interests. He also accepted membership in the economic reconstruction committee of the People's Political Council. Also in 1944 Huang founded the Hsien-cheng yüeh-k'an [constitutional government monthly] at Chungking with the dual purpose of promoting constitutional democratic rule in China after the war and of staving off civil war between the National Government and the Chinese Communists. He published the Chungkuo fu-hsing shih-chiang [the rebirth of China: ten lectures], in which he outlined his vision of the democratic and prosperous future possible for China under a popularly elected constitutional government. Perhaps because of these views, Huang was one of the representatives of the People's Political Council sent to Yenan in July 1945 to solicit Communist participation in the Political Consultative Conference. His Yen-an kuei-lai [to Yenan and back] tells of this trip.

After the war ended, tension between the National Government and the Communists increased, and Huang became active in movements seeking to promote a peaceful solution to China's political dilemma. In August 1945 he rallied his followers from the committee for industrial and commercial movements of the China Democratic League and, together with friends and associates representing various intellectual groups, organized the China Democratic National Construction Association, with himself as chairman. The political program of the association stressed protection of civil liberties, nationalization of big businesses, cooperative ownership of small businesses, tax reform, improvement of agriculture, and implementation of welfare measures. In 1946 the association moved its headquarters to Shanghai, where it began publication of the Chan-wang chou-k'an [expectations weekly], a journal considered by some ^"estern observers to be virtually a Communist propaganda organ. The association and the Chinese Communist party agreed on many issues